Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2 E3 2015 Hands-On Preview

With Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2, EA seems determined to please its fans, especially those who had played the first game. Before I got to spend any hands-on time with the game, the folks over at EA were quick to inform me that players of the first game would get to transfer their unlocked characters over to the second one, free of charge. EA also promised that they would continue to work on additional content for the game and release them to us as free content updates – a nice touch.

This sequel also brings a whole bunch of new things to the table: there will be nine game modes at launch, six new classes to play as, and a total of 14 playable classes in the game. Only three of the new classes were available to me at the demo and they were the Imp and Z-Mech, Captain Deadbeard, and Super Brainz. The class that I got to play was Imp/Z-Mech, which I found to be pretty versatile on its own.

When you play as the Imp, you’re controlling a little zombie that’s extremely fast and agile. EA even touted it as one of the fastest characters they’ve created. The Imp can double jump and shoot very quickly. If you’re looking to play as something tankier, the imp can also summon the Z-Mech suit and hop into it. Inside the Z-Mech, you’ll move slower but gain a massive boost in power. The Z-Mech allows you to foot stomp on your enemies and launch deadly missiles. However, the Z-Mech’s gattling gun will require a cooldown period once you’ve fired it enough.

Captain Deadbeard felt more like a sniper that had access to both long and close ranged weapons. He’s also armed with a parrot that can drop bombs on the enemies and shoot lasers from its eye, making it a pretty good ally to have in Garden Warfare 2.

Lastly, Super Brainz (the one that dresses like a superhero) takes on the melee class in Garden Warfare 2. Super Brainz shoot lasers from his fists, unleash a super ultra ball on small clusters of enemies, and even turns into a cyclone. All three of the new classes shown in the demo were very different and varied, and it was nice to have a good variety of options when it came down to choosing how you wished to play the game.

The graphics are just as good as you remember them from the first game, and everything still looks very bright and colorful. EA has also mentioned that Garden Warfare 2 will allow players to play the game in either online or local split-screen co-op. It was also stated that you would not need PS Plus or Xbox Gold in order to access the online portions of the game. Garden Warfare 2will also include solo play, though EA declined to share any information with regards to that. Instead, they promised that they would reveal details about solo play at a slightly later date.

With the inclusion of new game modes, playable classes, and maps, Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2 promises to deliver an even higher level of fun than it did with the first game.

Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2 will be made available for the PS4, Xbox One, and PC in spring 2016.